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Choline can Protect your Baby From MENTAL ILLNESS
The risk for mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, attention deficit disorder, and autism spectrum disorders is over 50% determined by the genes the baby receives from the father and mother. We developed choline supplementation in pregnancy because we wanted to find out if we could diminish the risk of transmitting mental illness by an intervention to support brain development before birth. Our research over 20 years–all of it peer-reviewed and published in major scientific journals—has indicated to us that maternal prenatal phosphatidylcholine supplements can effectively diminish risk of to the developing baby of at least one gene linked to schizophrenia, called CHRNA7. CHRNA7 makes the receptor activated by choline during fetal brain development.
CHRNA7 gene variants found in patients with schizophrenia are common in the general population, with about one in every five people having the variant. This high number may seem puzzling for a gene involved in serious mental illness. But for illnesses that involve complicated interactions between many genes, which is true for many human illnesses, each individual gene variant is usually common in the general population. It is the combination of genes and other problems that give rise to the illness that is rarer. People with CHRNA7 problems may have autism, bipolar disorder, or attention deficit disorder—all illnesses that also have CHRNA7 problems. Even if people with CHRNA7 problems are not overtly ill, they may have troubles with attention and social interactions that are not considered illness, but that are nonetheless impediments in their childhood and beyond.
We are often asked: if prenatal choline is targeted to a genetic risk associated with schizophrenia, should you then assess its effectiveness in women who have schizophrenia, because of the increased risk their baby has for schizophrenia? Women who have schizophrenia present difficulties for inclusion in a clinical trial during pregnancy. Sixty-one percent of their newborns had problems in brain development associated with later risk for mental illness if their mothers received placebo in the clinical trial, but that number was reduced by half, to 31%, if their mothers received phosphatidylcholine.
CHRNA7 is not the only gene that increases risk for mental illness. There are many such risk genes and different combination can appear in a new baby, because some risk genes can be contributed from mother and some from father. Interactions between genes and infection, stress and depression, and drug use may also contribute to how fetal brain development is affected. Current genetic tests do not test for these genes. Your baby is best protected if you take prenatal vitamins and choline.
Read more: Perinatal choline effects on neonatal pathophysiology related to later schizophrenia risk.
CHRNA7 gene variants found in patients with schizophrenia are common in the general population, with about one in every five people having the variant. This high number may seem puzzling for a gene involved in serious mental illness. But for illnesses that involve complicated interactions between many genes, which is true for many human illnesses, each individual gene variant is usually common in the general population. It is the combination of genes and other problems that give rise to the illness that is rarer. People with CHRNA7 problems may have autism, bipolar disorder, or attention deficit disorder—all illnesses that also have CHRNA7 problems. Even if people with CHRNA7 problems are not overtly ill, they may have troubles with attention and social interactions that are not considered illness, but that are nonetheless impediments in their childhood and beyond.
We are often asked: if prenatal choline is targeted to a genetic risk associated with schizophrenia, should you then assess its effectiveness in women who have schizophrenia, because of the increased risk their baby has for schizophrenia? Women who have schizophrenia present difficulties for inclusion in a clinical trial during pregnancy. Sixty-one percent of their newborns had problems in brain development associated with later risk for mental illness if their mothers received placebo in the clinical trial, but that number was reduced by half, to 31%, if their mothers received phosphatidylcholine.
CHRNA7 is not the only gene that increases risk for mental illness. There are many such risk genes and different combination can appear in a new baby, because some risk genes can be contributed from mother and some from father. Interactions between genes and infection, stress and depression, and drug use may also contribute to how fetal brain development is affected. Current genetic tests do not test for these genes. Your baby is best protected if you take prenatal vitamins and choline.
Read more: Perinatal choline effects on neonatal pathophysiology related to later schizophrenia risk.
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